Man who could have brought India, Pakistan together’: When Pak military dictator praised Lal Bahadur Shastri
During his short stint as India’s prime minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri proved many a stalwart of politics and diplomacy wrong. The war with Pakistan in 1965 was the highlight of his 19-month tenure as prime minister. During this period, he had a captivating relationship with then Pakistan’s military dictator Ayub Khan. Ayub Khan, a 6 feet 2 inches tall field marshal, had dismissed Lal Bahadur Shastri, a 5 feet 2 inches tall diminutive politician, as ‘nobody’ as he canceled his plan to visit New Delhi after the death of India’s first prime minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in 1964. He apparently said ‘who is there [in India] to talk to?’ Ayub Khan was known to judge leaders by their physical appearance and Lal Bahadur Shastri was thin and short. This physique led some in India to believe that he would not be able to fill in the shoes of Nehru, a stalwart in Indian politics. But Shastri outmaneuvered not only his detractors within the Congress party but also world leaders who took him lig...